Criminal
Justice

Sweden's
Prostitution Solution:

Why
Hasn't Anyone Tried
This Before?

In
a centuries deep sea of clichés despairing
that 'prostitution will always be with us', one
country's success stands out as a solitary beacon
lighting the way. In just five years Sweden has
dramatically reduced the number of its women in
prostitution. In the capital city of Stockholm
the number of women in street prostitution has
been reduced by two thirds, and the number of
johns has been reduced by 80%. There are other
major Swedish cities where street prostitution
has all but disappeared. Gone too, for the most
part, are the renowned Swedish brothels and massage
parlors which proliferated during the last three
decades of the twentieth century when prostitution
in Sweden was legal.

In
addition, the number of foreign women now being
trafficked into Sweden for sex is nil. The Swedish
government estimates that in the last few years
only 200 to 400 women and girls have been annually
sex trafficked into Sweden, a figure that's negligible
compared to the 15,000 to 17,000 females yearly
sex trafficked into neighboring Finland. No other
country, nor any other social experiment, has
come anywhere near Sweden's promising results.

By
what complex formula has Sweden managed this feat?
Amazingly, Sweden's strategy isn't complex at
all. It's tenets, in fact, seem so simple and
so firmly anchored in common sense as to immediately
spark the question, "Why hasn't anyone tried
this before?"

Sweden's Groundbreaking 1999 Legislation

In
1999, after years of research and study, Sweden
passed legislation that a) criminalizes the buying
of sex, and b) decriminalizes the selling of sex.
The novel rationale behind this legislation is
clearly stated in the government's literature
on the law:

"In
Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of
male violence against women and children. It is
officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation
of women and children and constitutes a significant
social problem... gender equality will remain
unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit
women and children by prostituting them."

In
addition to the two pronged legal strategy, a
third and essential element of Sweden's prostitution
legislation provides for ample and comprehensive
social service funds aimed at helping any prostitute
who wants to get out, and additional funds to
educate the public. As such, Sweden's unique strategy
treats prostitution as a form of violence against
women in which the men who exploit by buying sex
are criminalized, the mostly female prostitutes
are treated as victims who need help, and the
public is educated in order to counteract the
historical male bias that has long stultified
thinking on prostitution. To securely anchor their
view in firm legal ground, Sweden's prostitution
legislation was passed as part and parcel of the
country's 1999 omnibus violence against women
legislation.

An
Early Obstacle in the Path

Interestingly,
despite the country's extensive planning prior
to passing the legislation, the first couple years
into this novel project nothing much happened
at all. Police made very few arrests of johns
and prostitution in Sweden, which had previously
been legalized, went on pretty much as it had
gone on before. Naysayers the world over responded
to the much publicized failure with raucous heckling,
"See? Prostitution always has been, and it
always will be."

But
eminently secure in the thinking behind their
plan, the Swedes paid no heed. They quickly identified,
then solved the problem. The hang-up, the place
where their best efforts had snagged, was that
law enforcement wasn't doing it's part. The police
themselves, it was determined, needed in-depth
training and orientation to what the Swedish public
and legislature already understood profoundly.
Prostitution is a form of male violence against
women. The exploiter/buyers need to be punished,
and the victim/prostitutes need to be helped.
The Swedish government put up extensive funds
and the country's police and prosecutors, from
the top ranks down to the officer on the beat,
were given intensive training and a clear message
that the country meant business. It was then that
the country quickly began to see the unequaled
results.

Today,
not only do the Swedish people continue to overwhelming
support their country's approach to prostitution
(80% of people in favor according to national
opinion polls), but the country's police and prosecutors
have also come around to be among the legislation's
staunchest supporters. Sweden's law enforcement
has found that the prostitution legislation benefits
them in dealing with all sex crimes, particularly
in enabling them to virtually wipe out the organized
crime element that plagues other countries where
prostitution has been legalized or regulated.

The
Failure of Legalization and/or Regulation Strategies

This
Swedish experiment is the single, solitary example
in a significant sized population of a prostitution
policy that works. In 2003, the Scottish government
in looking to revamp its own approach to prostitution
enlisted the University of London to do a comprehensive
analysis of outcomes of prostitution policies
in other countries. In addition to reviewing Sweden's
program, the researchers chose Australia, Ireland,
and the Netherlands to represent various strategies
of legalizing and/or regulating prostitution.
The researchers did not review the situation where
prostitution is criminalized across the board
as it is in the US. The outcome of that approach
is already well known. The failures and futility
of the revolving door of arresting and rearresting
prostitutes is all too familiar the world over.

But
the outcomes, as revealed in the Univ. of London
study, in the states under review that had legalized
or regulated prostitution were found to be just
as discouraging or even more discouraging than
the traditional all round criminalization. In
each case the results were dramatic in the negative.

Legalization
and/or regulation of prostitution, according to
the study, led to:

A
dramatic increase in all facets of the sex industry,

A
dramatic increase in the involvement of organized
crime in the sex industry,

A
dramatic increase in child prostitution,

An
explosion in the number of foreign women and
girls trafficked into the region, and

Indications
of an increase in violence against women.

In
the state of Victoria, Australia, where a system
of legalized, regulated brothels was established,
there was such an explosion in the number of brothels
that it immediately overwhelmed the system's ability
to regulate them, and just as quickly these brothels
became a mire of organized crime, corruption,
and related crimes. In addition, surveys of the
prostitutes working under systems of legalization
and regulation find that the prostitutes themselves
continue to feel coerced, forced, and unsafe in
the business.

A
survey of legal prostitutes under the showcase
Netherlands legalization policy finds that 79%
say they want to get out of the sex business.
And though each of the legalization/regulation
programs promised help for prostitutes who want
to leave prostitution, that help never materialized
to any meaningful degree. In contrast, in Sweden
the government followed through with ample social
services funds to help those prostitutes who wanted
to get out. 60% of the prostitutes in Sweden took
advantage of the well funded programs and succeeded
in exiting prostitution.*

Why,
then, with Sweden's success so clearly lighting
the way, aren't others quickly adopting the plan?
Well, some are. Both Finland and Norway are on
the verge of making the move. And if Scotland
takes the advise of its own study, it will go
in that direction too. But, the answer to the
question of why other countries aren't jumping
to adopt Sweden's plan is probably the same as
the answer to the question of why governments
haven't tried Sweden's solution before.

In
order to see prostitutes as victims of male coercion
and violence it requires that a government first
switch from seeing prostitution from the male
point of view to the female point of view. And
most, if not virtually all, countries of the world
still see prostitution and every other issue from
a predominantly male point of view.

Sweden,
in contrast, has led the way in promoting equality
for women for a very long time. In 1965, for example,
Sweden criminalized rape in marriage. Even by
the 1980's there were states in the United States
that still hadn't made that fundamental recognition
of women's rights to control her own body. The
Swedish government also stands out in having the
highest proportion of women at all levels of government.
In 1999, when Sweden passed its groundbreaking
prostitution legislation, the Swedish Parliament
was composed of nearly 50% women.

Sweden's
prostitution policy was first designed and lobbied
for by Sweden's organization of women's shelters
and was then fostered and fought for by a bipartisan
effort of Sweden's uniquely powerful and numerous
female parliamentarians. Nor has Sweden stopped
there. In 2002, Sweden passed additional legislation
bolstering the original prostitution legislation.
The 2002 Act Prohibiting Human Trafficking for
the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation closed some
of the loopholes in the earlier legislation and
further strengthened the government's ability
to go after the network of persons that surround
and support prostitution, such as the recruiters,
the transporters, and the hosts.

And
Why Can't We Copy Sweden's Success Here?

While
it's probably true that we and other countries
are still much more steeped in patriarchal darkness
than Sweden, there's no reason we can't push now
for the policy changes that Sweden has made. The
beauty of it is that once the ground has been
broken and the proof of success has been established,
it should be ever much easier to convince others
to go down that path.